Modern manufacturing and repair processes often require highly precise and accurate object inspection and manipulation. For example, fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) is a common technique used extensively for detection of surface connected discontinuities in relatively complex structural workpieces. Traditionally, an inspector examines a workpiece to which a fluorescent penetrant has been applied. The inspection and manipulation of workpieces during FPI and other processes often rely on human inspectors to detect and manipulate surface defects or other features using manual processes. The current manual methods of inspection and manipulation are labor intensive, slow, and subject to human limitations. Because of these problems, it is desirable to have systems and control processes that are less reliant on manual operation.